On July 14, 2017, Fairfax County, Virginia, patrol police forcibly entered a million-dollar residence. They swiftly located the remains of Pam Hargan, 63, and her 24-year-old daughter, Helen, who was armed with a firearm. Almost as fast, authorities informed media that it was a murder-suicide and informed Helen’s father that her wound appeared to have been “self-inflicted.”
Pam and Helen Hargan LinkedIn/Carlos Gutierrez
However, when lead homicide detective Brian Byerson examined the evidence, he was skeptical.
So, he made a decision: “Wait. Byerson tells “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant in “Death Hits Home: The Hargan Killings” to “wait and do the job.”” In these situations, if you make assumptions before doing the actual task, you will err.
Despite the absence of a suicide note, Helen’s eldest sister, Megan, 34, told detectives that Helen had been “depressed” and “constantly angry.”
Megan previously lived with Pam and Helen. She told investigators that her mother and sister had fought, but that Pam was still alive when Megan left the house that afternoon.
According to Megan, Pam said that morning that she was withdrawing from the commitment to purchase a home for Helen. Why? Because Pam disapproved of the impending move-in of Helen’s boyfriend.
Soon later, Pam passed away.
Could this have been the reason Helen killed her mother and then herself?
As investigators examined the house for evidence, Dr. Posthumus, the medical examiner, delivered Helen’s postmortem results: She had been shot in the head’s crown. The rifle round had entered her neck from below.
Byerson asserts that Helen could not have shot herself in that manner with that gun.
“To accomplish this, she would have to hold the gun upright and be able to reach the trigger,” he explains. “She would have had to perform a miracle. It just isn’t doable.”
According to Byerson, this was not a murder-suicide. It was a double homicide.
Who was the murderer, though?
Byerson explains, “Our duty is to try to piece together this puzzle and determine out what happened.”
Byerson claims that when he and his team proceeded to investigate the murders, the evidence pointed to one of Pam Hargan’s daughters. But it wasn’t Helen.
“It becomes abundantly clear to us,” he says. “It’s Megan Hargan.”
Megan Hargan
Byerson quickly learned that Megan’s desire to murder her mother was motivated by a six-figure sum. Pam Hargan had an estate worth $8 million, and Megan Hargan desired a home of her own.
Five days after the deaths of Pam and Helen, Byerson interviewed Megan. The duration would exceed four hours. According to him, she admitted to attempting to steal her mother’s money, but she said she had not murdered her family.
Despite Byerson’s persistent suspicions and the mounting evidence against Megan Hargan, she was not arrested on that date.
That would require over a year and a half, or until November 9, 2018.
Peter Van Sant asks, “Why in the world did it take 16 months to file murder charges?”
Detective Byerson explains, “Therefore, murder investigations can be highly complicated.” “You must not only be certain, but also correct. And this decision… does not lie solely with me… I must be in agreement with the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office. Therefore, after consulting with them, we decided to hold off.”
Megan Hargan’s trial would be delayed for an additional three and a half years, forcing the surviving Hargan family to wait.
Commonwealth of Virginia prosecutors Tyler Bezilla and Whitney Gregory began by informing the jury that Megan attempted to steal more than $400,000 from Pam’s bank account the day before and morning of her mother’s death. Megan called her mother’s bank and attempted to wire transfer the money while posing as Pam.
The prosecution claims Megan killed her mother out of desperation for money. Then, according to the hypothesis, Megan killed her sister to silence her by arranging a murder-suicide.
Bezilla states, “This is a person who murdered two of her closest relatives for money.”
However, the defense contends that Helen, not Megan, was the murderer. Helen is described by Megan’s attorneys as mentally disturbed and depressed. They tell the jury that Helen was furious with her mother for telling her that she wouldn’t get the new house if she didn’t break up with the man she intended to marry one day.
According to the prosecution, there is no proof that Helen was sad.
However, the defense contends the police got it correctly the first time. It was a case of murder-suicide.
Iris Dalley Graff, a forensics expert, rebuilt Helen Hargan’s death scene. She testified for the prosecution and informed Peter Van Sant that Helen’s arm was insufficiently length to draw the trigger.
The defense has an unexpected idea that does not rely on Helen’s arm length.
How investigators solved the Hargan murders with 20 photographs
They inform the jury. Helen Hargan accidentally shot herself in the head by pressing the trigger with her toe.
Strange? Improbable? Perhaps.
Graff admitted to Van Sant, however, that although exceedingly improbable, it is plausible. “Her legs are sufficiently length for her toe to reach the trigger,” she explains.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Bezilla disputed the defense’s claim that Pam Hargan would cancel the contract for Helen’s new home. The defense, however, contends that there is an abundance of reasonable doubt in this case. They believe that the prosecution’s forensic evidence is inconclusive and that the “toe on the trigger” scenario cannot be dismissed.
Will the jury be convinced?